Mabuza puts smiles on girl athletes

AVID social road-race runner, Tenacious Mabuza has continued with her philanthropic work after donating sanitary pads to three netball teams and five athletes.

Mabuza, in partnership with Oliver Keith Foundation and Sports Grind, donated sanitary wear that will last each player three months.

The netball teams which were recipients of the donation are Glenkara, Lobengula and Makopo Netball clubs while the athletes are from Themba Mhlophe’s Athletics Club.

This is not the first time that Mabuza and her partners, Oliver Keith Foundation and Sports Grind engaged in philanthropic work.

It began during last year’s Comrades Marathon when Mabuza promised to raise sanitary pads for the less privileged.

The campaign received immense support.

“As uBabes weRun, I have always loved sports and have been active in local marathons in Zimbabwe. As a social runner I grew to become an impact runner as well where I found myself running for social causes. The campaign which we termed Pad-A-Km started last year in August 2022 as a campaign to motivate me to take up the Comrades Marathon which was my first attempt.

“I challenged myself to do something that will impact the community that I serve and as the founder of Hope Through Sports Trust, a trust that seeks to change the life of the Girl Children in sports, we came up with the concept as a going concern to eradicate period poverty,” said Mabuza.

Among others supporting the cause are top flight footballers, who ply their trade in some of the biggest teams in the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League and also businesspeople.

“We got an overwhelming response from distinguished persons from our region such as business woman Sarah Mpofu-Sibanda, football personalities such as Tatenda Perfect Chikwende, Darlington Sadam Mnkuli, Menzi Mulangisi, Patience Nhliziyo, Michael Charamba and Vincent Moyo,” she said.

The idea to have such an initiative came after Mabuza saw a video of girls using cow dung and unsterilised pieces of cloth during their menstrual periods. Apart from donating sanitary wear, Mabuza said they are also looking for means of empowering girls as well.

“I realised many girls are affected including girls in sport hence the decision to do something along the lines of ending period poverty. We are also looking into sustainable ways to empower the girls as well,” she said.

Mabuza has been involved in a number of successful campaigns to raise pads. Over the years she has donated sanitary wear to Zifa Southern Region Women’s League, Montrose High School, Pumula Community as well as other communities outside Bulawayo such as the Gwanda Kip Keino orphanage and Filabusi community.

“Because I identify as a social and impact runner, the Pad-A-Km is an ongoing campaign which will see more girls in sports benefiting from it as long as I keep running. We are looking into sustainable ways of empowering the girls, the drive usually collects disposable sanitary wear and we are looking into ways of getting re-usable pads as they present an economic advantage,” she said. — @brandon_malvin